October - 2 a.m.

Columbia River Cruise 2.0

We spent the night docked in The Dalles, Oregon and then a little before 7 am we set sail for Hood River.  The first three hours of the morning would be our first taste of cruising through the panoramic Columbia River Valley.  And to be honest, while I am REALLY enjoying sharing this vacation with the family, the real reason that we were ready to return to this identical cruise that we had taken in June 2017 was for the cruising scenery like we would see today.  The sun had just come up as I began snapping photographs......

Kim and Karrie joined me for a while and at about 8 am we took a break to have breakfast.  Even the views out the window were spectacular....

View out the window from my seat

Close up of the view, more like what I actually saw!

I had a light breakfast and excused myself to return to the top deck for more pictures....

While we were cruising after breakfast, Kim took advantage of the exercise machine to multi-task a workout while watching the scenery go by.  Can't be a gym like this - or an "office" like mine this morning!

Finally we sailed right under a bridge with only feet to spare (trust me - you'll want to see this in the highlight video I'll make later this week!) and then literally parked RIGHT on the shore.  The captain was steering from the front deck and I was him literally land on a tennis ball sitting along the water's edge; I went to him and told him how impressed I was because I KNEW he was aiming for that marker!  LOL!!  What a great morning!